Solar power: ‘Chinese were lowest bidders, locals wanted more profit’

Dignitaries accompanying Sharif brothers feted by district authorities, park officials.

BAHAWALPUR:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that the first unit at the Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park had been quickly completed due to the industriousness of those who worked on it.

He was speaking at the unit’s inauguration ceremony in Bahawalpur. Sharif said other formidable projects would also be completed on the lines of the initiative. He said the unit was generating 100MW of electricity.

The chief minister said the government had constructed roads and ensured the provision of water in the area before awarding the contract of the project to any bidder. Sharif said the government had invited local businessmen to invest in the project to no avail. He said they had not expressed interest in the project as they were only interested in making abnormal profits. Sharif said such people were not patriots and prized their interest over that of the nation.

He said the sit-ins at Islamabad’s D-Chowk had interrupted the project as soon as work had started on it. Sharif said the sit-ins had compromised the nation’s reputation, damaged the national economy and resulted in the postponement of the Chinese president’s visit to the nation. The chief minister said Tebian Electric Apparatus, the Chinese company that gave the lowest bid for the project, had given the government a Rs2 billion discount. He said this was an example of Pakistan-China friendship. The chief minister said German consultants had inspected the quality of the project. He said payments had been made after they had expressed satisfaction with quality standards.

Sharif said actual work on the project had commenced in October-November 2014. He said this showed that the project had been completed in a remarkably short period of time. Sharif said the project was so promising that the government would soon list it on the stock market.

The chief minister said China had confidence in the national leadership and was investing $46 billon under the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor project. Sharif said an industrial estate would be established in the vicinity of the park.

400,000 solar panels have been installed on 500 acres of land under the Rs15 billion-project.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2015.